Joao Silva

Hailing from Benedita, just north of Lisbon, Silva progressed from being national junior champion in 2006 and 2007 to European under-23 champion in 2008, 2010 and 2011.

Born into an era dominated by Javier Gomez and the Brownlee brothers was always going to be challenging, but Silva became one of the few triathletes outside the decorated trio to make it to the top step of a World Triathlon Series podium – twice taking the tape in Yokohama in 2011 and 2012.

An impressive ninth place at London 2012, where he beat contemporaries Vincent Luis and Richard Murray, was the pick of three Olympic appearances, as the Hyde Park race was followed by finishing 35 th in Rio in 2016 and 23 rd last year in Tokyo.

More success came in the 2015 European Games in Baku where Silva picked up the silver medal, showing his renowned running speed and liking for hot conditions in defeating a host of big names but just falling short of clawing back Britain’s Gordon Benson over the 10km run.

A comfortable winner of his national senior title in 2016, Silva is now a veteran of the short course racing and with more than 170 appearances as a professional remains a threat. His last victory was in China in 2019 and he is still a regular top 10 finisher on the World Triathlon Championship Series – improving from 11th in Leeds to 10th in Montreal and then 8th in Hamburg this summer.

Silva also competed in all three Arena Games Triathlon events earlier this year, finishing 18th in the final round in Singapore. Along with Joao Pereira and more recently Vasco Vilaca, it makes for a formidable Portuguese men’s trio to look out for. Outside of triathlon, Silva likes to take advantage of the surf off Portugal’s Atlantic coast before kicking back to relax with good quality coffee.